As many Manhattan High fans found out during football playoffs, the Kansas State High School Activities Association has contracted with the broadcasting channel NFHS to broadcast postseason and tournament games for Kansas high school sports. But this channel comes at a price for viewers and for schools who might cover their own sports, which is where I think KSHAA should not use NFHS. 

The reason this is such a big issue is because as the Sports Editor for The Mentor the sports writers and I need to watch all the games, but a lot of us can’t go to every away game because they’re either during the day or too far away. When our game is at a school that uses NFHS streaming, as a non-subscriber I’m not able to watch those games I am not able to watch without paying and it’s just way too expensive to pay to watch an occasional game only.

The other problem with NFHS is that schools cannot stream their own home team’s postseason games. Earlier this year as you may know MHS football won State but due to NFHS we were unable to stream it and people that couldn’t attend could not watch without paying $12 for the month covering a single game (or $80 for the year) when it only takes $5 to get into a game. 

Our MHS Student Media livestreams, run by student journalists, currently use YouTube as a streaming device. I think that all schools should switch to that so no one has to pay and everyone can watch postseason games for free, while students get the experience of learning to live stream. 

Currently there is a bill in the Kansas Senate that would allow some professional and amateur broadcasters to continue broadcasting post-season games and bypass the NFHS so every school will be able to stream their own games and everyone can watch without paying. 

As a student sports writer I support this Bill because it would make my reporting job a lot easier to cover sports while they’re away. MHS sports viewers probably agree.